The New King of the Court

The 24-year-old Novak Djokovic holds his first Wimbledon trophy after he beat Rafael Nadal in four sets Sunday.
Associated Press

By

Tom Perrotta

Updated July 4, 2011 10:20 p.m. ET

WIMBLEDON, England—The year 2011, otherwise known as the Year of the Serb, hasn't taken everyone in the tennis world by surprise.

In Belgrade last December, after Novak Djokovic leveled the Davis Cup final between Serbia and France at 2-2, Slobodan Zivojinovic, once Serbia's best male player and now the president of its tennis federation, sat in his tiny office in the bowels of Belgrade Arena and smoked one cigarette after another, a fading one used to light a fresh one.

His desk was strewn with empty cans of Coke and shot-sized plastic cups for instant espresso—fuel for a man who looked like he hadn't slept in days. One more victory and Serbia would have its first Davis Cup title. Win or lose, though, Zivojinovic made a bold prediction about Djokovic.

"He is ready to be No. 1," Zivojinovic said. "Next year is going to be his year in tennis."

Serbia, of course, won the title 3-2. As for Djokovic, 2011 has indeed been his year—a marvelous year, more so than Zivojinovic, or anyone else, could have imagined.

ENLARGE

Novak Djokovic took a commanding 2-0 lead in his four-set victory over Rafael Nadal in Sunday's Wimbledon final.
Associated Press

The 24-year-old Serb has lost one match all season, won the Australian Open, taken over the No. 1 ranking and now captured his first Wimbledon title, 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 over Rafael Nadal, the two-time winner and defending champion.

When Nadal hit a backhand long on the last point, Djokovic turned and fell to his back. His parents, Srdjan and Dijana, his younger brothers and the rest of his entourage embraced and jumped in unison in the player's box. Djokovic plucked a blade of grass from Centre Court and ate it. "I felt like an animal," he joked. "I wanted to see how it tastes. It tastes good."

Nadal, who had been on a 20-match winning streak at Wimbledon and in the hunt for his third French Open-Wimbledon double, now has a bona fide nemesis—a Nadal to his Roger Federer. Five times this year, Djokovic and Nadal have met in a final, and five times Djokovic has won. Twice on hard courts. Twice on clay. And, now, on grass. Whatever the surface, whatever the tournament, Djokovic is the world's supreme tennis player.

"He is in the best moment of his career," Nadal said.

It has been a long moment. Djokovic's record since December: 50-1, a stretch of supremacy that rivals any in the history of sport, never mind tennis. Djokovic, who has longed to be No. 1 in the world since he was four years old, spent years in doubtful exile at No. 3 behind two of the best players ever. "I did have difficult, crisis times where I didn't know if I could really make it," he said. Now he's not only No. 1, but also perhaps something more: the most dominant athlete in the world today.

"I can't find words to describe the feeling that I have right now," Djokovic said. "I managed to achieve a lifetime goal and I managed to make my dream come true, all in three days' time."

Save one match this season, in the French Open semifinal against Federer, Djokovic's tennis has been impenetrable. He skates—sometimes literally—along the baseline, tracking down balls from corner to corner. No one in the sport can match his flexibility, or his talent for hitting offensive shots from what would be fatal positions for many players.

Nadal's forehand is one of the game's all-time weapons. In the first two sets Sunday, it was all but useless. Djokovic absorbed every punch Nadal could throw and either coaxed him into an error or angled a shot that Nadal, who is both fast and an expert predictor of patterns, couldn't retrieve. Djokovic has the most fearsome return of serve in tennis. A telling stat: Nadal made 81% of his first serves in the first two sets, yet was broken three times.

Nadal admitted that the prospect of playing Djokovic makes him fret when he normally wouldn't. At the end of the first set, he squandered a 30-0 lead on his serve when trailing 5-4. Down 4-3 in the fourth set, he was left hanging his head after a bad error handed Djokovic a 0-40 lead.

"The mental part is little bit dangerous for me," Nadal said. "To win these kind of matches, I have to play well these kind of points."

Nadal will drop to No. 2 in the rankings Monday. Before Sunday, he had never lost to Djokovic at a Grand Slam and never lost to anyone other than Federer in a Grand Slam final. He's 25 now, the same age that Bjorn Borg, a man to whom he is often compared, won his last Grand Slam title. That was at the French Open in 1981, a few weeks before he lost his Wimbledon title to John McEnroe—and his confidence with it. Nadal, his fans will be relieved to hear, didn't reveal Borg-like distress in defeat.

"When one player is better than you, at this moment the only thing you can do is work, try to find solutions and try to wait a little bit for your time," he said. "I gonna wait."

ENLARGE

Novak Djokovic becomes the world's No. 1 player in the new rankings Monday.
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Djokovic had one hiccup in the final, when he relaxed early in the third set and began to miss. Nadal quickly built an insurmountable lead and looked like he might have a comeback in him. But in the fourth set, Djokovic broke, was broken and then broke again in the second-to-last game with another tireless display of retrieving. In the final game, he earned match point with a gutsy—and rare—serve-and-volley play.

"It was now or never," he said. "Just close your eyes, hit slice, go to the net and hope he will chip the one back."

The tactic is not one that Djokovic would have practiced much in the mountain resort of Kopaonik, where his parents owned a pizzeria next to three hard courts. There are no grass courts in Serbia. Before Djokovic, there were no male Grand Slam champions, either.

But it was Wimbledon's lawns, broadcast via television, that hooked the young Djokovic on tennis. To win it, he said on the eve of the final, "it's just simply something I've dreamed of forever."

Zivojinovic, who watched the final from the Royal Box, once aced his way to the Wimbledon semifinal and also dreamed of more. He said he was proud and happy to watch the latest chapter of Serbia's improbable tennis history unfold.

"To become No. 1 and win Wimbledon, what better thing could there be?" he asked. In tennis, there isn't.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.